Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: State can lead nation in putting children 1st

April 14, 2010|By Newt Gingrich | Guest columnist

Simply put, Florida has a decision to make: Champion the interests of the state's schoolchildren or protect the interests of government employee unions.

The Florida Legislature has done something bold. It has approved a set of education reforms that will install accountability into a system where mediocrity is currently portrayed as acceptable and teachers are unaccountable for their job performance.

Much is at risk. As a country, we are already falling behind economic powers China and India. It is widely acknowledged that our current system is failing too many of our children and must be fixed. We must reassert ourselves and create a public education system that leads to success for its students. Florida has the opportunity now to lead a nation that is in dire need of a new direction in public education.

Florida's choice is between maintaining the status quo or creating better educational opportunities for its children and their families. These reforms include: creating a more objective evaluation system; replacing teacher tenure with performance-based contracts; rewarding teachers whose students succeed and not rewarding teachers who fail their students; and, providing greater pay for teaching in schools with greater challenges.

Under the current system, 99.7 percent of all Florida teachers receive "satisfactory" evaluations. A system that claims virtually 100 percent satisfactory performance while one in four students fails to graduate is a system in need of reform. Senate Bill 6 brings more objectivity into the evaluation system by linking teacher performance evaluations to student progress. Nobody pays an auto mechanic for failing to fix a car; neither does one pay a contractor who fails to build a house.

Under the new system, at least half of a teacher's annual evaluation would be based on student progress. The new system would have four levels of teacher performance: unsatisfactory, needs improvement, effective and highly effective. Teachers in the top two levels would be eligible for pay raises.

Florida teachers gain tenure after just three years of satisfactory evaluations, which is almost automatic with most teachers receiving satisfactory reviews. Short of a Supreme Court judgeship, no position inside or outside government guarantees lifetime employment; neither should it.

What Florida is proposing would fundamentally change the education system for the better, and it has the potential to propel change in other states. While this bill does not change the rules regarding tenure for existing teachers, it would abolish the tenure system for teachers hired after July 1, 2010. All new teachers thereafter would be hired on an annual contract system.

Under the current system, teachers are recertified every five years if they complete 120 hours of professional-development classes. Under the reform legislation, student progress would be a factor in deciding who teaches and who does not, ensuring that Florida teachers demonstrate an ongoing ability to help students learn. Connecting teacher certification to student progress adds another level of incentive for teachers to focus their time, energy and talent on the student — exactly where it should be.

The reform bill also makes changes in three key areas of teacher pay. First, it would require districts to pay higher salaries for teaching at high-need schools — essentially low-income or low-performing schools. Second, there would be more pay for teaching math or science, which is especially important considering 2009 test scores showed 24 percent of Florida's eighth-graders were below the basic level on reading and 30 percent were below the basic level in math. Third, there would be more pay for teachers whose students show progress each year. To pay for the raises, the Legislature is setting aside $900 million in the state budget.

This is a watershed moment. On one side of this debate are the millions of public school students and the teachers who will help them succeed. On the other are the politically entrenched government-employee unions that are failing Florida's children. Florida should stand with its children and its future.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the general chairman of American Solutions. He wrote this for the Orlando Sentinel.